Is it your exercise routine that contributes most to your appearance, or is it cosmetics?  Do you stay beautiful to attract potential partners or to enjoy the increased self-confidence?  Are you more focused on the appearance of your face or your body?

Researchers from the ASAPS and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons set out to answer questions like these. The survey revealed, among other interesting findings, that different age groups perceived beauty in different ways.  ASAPS President Renato Saltz says the survey was intended to help surgeons “understand what patients are most concerned about at different stages of their lives.”

Participants were grouped by age to determine how members of each generation approach physical appearance of the self, and physical appearance of a partner.

Survey respondents in their 20s, 30s, and 40s reported that a “fit, well proportioned body” was what they found most appealing in another person.  When it came to their own physical characteristics, the same group was apparently more concerned about their faces.  The abdomen and hips were said to be areas of significant concern (especially in the 30s), but the breadth of patients said they were most conscious of their facial appearance.

In all age groups, the use of cosmetic procedures ranked fairly high, alongside diet, exercise, and skin care.  Through the link listed below you can easily view the results (in a pdf file) of the Beauty for Life survey.

http://www.surgery.org/private/download/BFLUserSurvey.pdf

Vicodin

An FDA Advisory committee, which is an outside group providing information to the FDA, recently issued a recommendation banning the use of two common prescription pain killers: Vicodin and Percocet. This was a 20-17 decision by the panel and is now in front of the FDA, which has historically approved such recommendations. What’s the reason you may ask. Well, it has to do with the amount of acetaminophen in the pills. Acetaminophen is garden variety Tylenol. Tylenol has been implicated in multiple liver failure cases secondary to overdoses (”O.D. ing”). The recommended maximum amount of Tylenol is 4 grams daily. That comes out to 12 tablets at the 325 mg per tablet dose, and 8 tablets at the 500 mg per tablet dose.

The panel felt that a tighter control over acetaminophen was required. So, they recommended removing the 500 mg per tablet dose of Tylenol, and banning Vicodin and Percocet. The recommendation has nothing to do with the narcotics present in Vicodin and Percocet, just the acetaminophen.

Is this a good decision? I’m not so sure. I don’t think that this recommendation will actually decrease the number of overdoses (”O.D. ing”). People who want to harm themselves will still take a large amount of Tylenol and still have liver failure. Patients who take Vicodin and Percocet for pain are not going to put themselves at risk of liver failure if they follow the directions on the label. Similarly, patients who follow the directions on the Tylenol bottle will also not put themselves at risk for liver failure. All this ban is going to accomplish is raise a lot of questions from worried patients, make it harder for them to find prescription pain medication that works, and make this an all around pain without any real benefit. That’s my 2c!

As reported by the New York Times here, medical practices in Prague are now offering free surgical enhancements to nurses as an employment incentive.  One nurse opted for breast augmentation and liposuction, free of charge.  

The piece raises some interesting ethical questions: While the procedures could certainly be beneficial to individual nurses in the short term, would such a practice harm the nursing profession as a whole?  

According to reporter Dan Bilefsky, nurses in the region “insist they are under enormous pressure to look good in a society where attractiveness is often as highly prized as clinical skills.”  Critics argue that the incentives could promote an idealized body image for nurses, in a profession already suffering from misconceptions about technical competence.  A spokeswoman from the Czech nurses association argues that nurses are still perceived as “low level workers” with little to offer besides manual labor.  Nurses after all, aren’t intended to be models, but caregivers that provide an enormous benefit to the medical profession and the public they serve.  A misplaced emphasis on their physical appearance could undermine public perceptions of their competence and value.

Still, others may not see any problem with offering incentives through procedures like breast augmentation or rhinoplasty; perhaps they’re analogous to employee discounts at a retailer, vacation packages, or other career perks.  

The supposed ethical problems brought by these surgical incentive programs probably aren’t a product of the programs alone, but rather an objection to the sexism and discrimination that underlie them.